Medicine Hat Joe

Week 47  Philippians 2

Paul tells the people in Philippi: continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Paul’s advice about working-out-my-salvation sounds like a collaborative effort. I work & the Lord works. Teamwork.
Let’s say I’m planting a tree. My friend comes over to help. If he works extra hard and does most of the donkey-work I can see that. If he slacks-off I see that too. My friend’s contribution is observable & measurable.
Of course Paul’s interest is Salvation Work – not tree-planting. The other difference is that when it comes to the Lord working with me his assistance is less detectable. A different kind of teamwork.
A concrete example of Salvation Work is right there in the next verse: do everything without grumbling or arguing. So I work at trying not to grumble or argue about something. Even though it’s me trying I figure that it’s very possible that at that very moment – in the background – the Lord’s collaboration is helping me avoid a pointless argument. Even though I have no idea about the extent of his help.
Sometimes I might have an I-don’t -know-how-I-did-it moment where I act unnaturally or abnormally. And so I credit the Lord. But other times I’m just trying to do what I know to do – and assuming that somehow I’m getting some back-up.

Note: quotes from Philippians 2:12 13 14 (NIV)

 

Week 47  Philippians 1

Paul’s prayer to the church:
This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.
It’s a pretty interesting prayer. I break it down…personalize it.
Paul’s hope & prayer is that my love will grow. The love he’s talking about isn’t static. It has a dynamic quality. It’s process-oriented.
Paul divides the growth & expansion of love into two similar spheres: a) increased knowledge and b) increased depth-of-insight. Whatever the exact difference is between them the point is that expanding-love isn’t random. Directionally-speaking it’s targeted at knowledge-and-wisdom.
(I notice that Paul doesn’t say anything about how I feel. The love he’s referring to starts with knowledgeableness. With wisdom.)
One of the benefits of Knowledgeable Love is that I’ll be able to discern what is best – that’s how Paul puts it. I’ll be able to sort through things…make distinctions…be more discriminating. It’s an advantageous development.
And even though being more discriminating is it’s own big benefit Paul says there’s two connected by-products: a) becoming blameless and b) gaining righteous (he calls them fruits of righteousness).
It’s a transformative process. I start as one kind of person. I evolve into another  kind. (I notice nothing is said about the change being easy or straightforward.)

Note: quote from Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)

Week 46  Galatians 1

I’m not far into the letter before I see this: I am amazed that you are so quickly turning…to a different gospel – not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
It’s a niggling question but I wondered why Paul called this new teaching a different gospel when it was in reality an erroneous substitute.
If I was writing it I’d have said something like this: “You started with the Basic Gospel – the ‘good news’ of Jesus. But now you’ve hived-off into a grotesque alternate. I can understand Clarificatory Adjustments – you update define qualify adjust modify explain revise tweak rearrange alter. Fair enough. But what you’re doing is reinventing the Basic Gospel. It’s not the Gospel. You’ve modified it past the point-of-no-return. Here’s what you need to do: Start with the Basic Gospel and Stick with it. Starting requires Sticking.”
Okay…I know I’m putting words in Paul’s mouth. He didn’t say that. But the rewriting exercise helped me in two ways: a) it clarified what I think Paul was saying and b) it reminded me that with the Basic Gospel I’m on a specifically defined trajectory and whatever directional fine-tuning I do I can’t stray from the established path.

Note: quote from Galatians 1:6-7 (CSB). I’ve thought about this topic before in ‘different gospel’ (November 5/2020) and ‘a hybrid gospel’ (November 6/2020).

Week 45  2 Corinthians 13

Near the very end of the letter Paul recommended a self-administered examination: test yourself to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourself.
If I’m testing to see whether I’m in-the-faith then I figure I need to know what I’m testing myself against. So I started looking in the last nine verses of the letter for specific suggestions.
In those final verses Paul does specify a couple of general things (I’m a bit disappointed since I want specifics…not generalities). But anyway what I get is a) one long suggestion and then b) a couple of shorts ones mashed together in one verse.
The first is: do nothing wrong…do what is right. So that’s a pretty good tip-off about what I’m testing for (Paul talks a bit more about this two-sides-of-the-same-coin idea – do right & don’t do wrong – in the next three verses).
Then there’s a group of short suggestions: finally…rejoice. Become mature, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace. I reformat it:
Rejoice
Become mature
Be encouraged
Be of the same mind
Be at peace.
So those are some of the categories I’m aiming for. Big principles. Comprehensive ideas. Things I have to mine for specifics. But they at least point me in the right direction when I test myself and ask: am I in the faith?

Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 13:5 (I changed the plural yourselves to singular) & 13:7 11 (CSB).

 

Week 45  2 Corinthians 10

Paul didn’t have a completely captive audience in Corinth. One of the things his critics said was that Paul: walked according to the flesh. I checked a couple of versions and they more-or-less confirmed the language. Paul was:
living according to the flesh
living by the standards of this world
operating according to human standards
working in a worldly way.
I wondered what was behind that complaint. Paul always seemed like an extravagantly religious guy to me. How people figured he was a worldly-guy was a bit of a mystery.
I couldn’t see how people would have thought Paul was a non-religious or anti-religious guy. Paul was definitely a religious guy. Their problem seemed to be that his religion let him inch too close to the standards of this world. So apparently Paul was not putting enough distance between himself and the world.  And the only religious group that I know who would have come up with that kind of strict avoid-the-world line would be the rigorous observers of the OT (and Paul had a pretty extensive history of locking-horns with them).
Paul was usually complimentary about the OT. But his position was that the regulations of the OT was not the right hill-to-die-on. The NT gospel had made some key adjustments. For some people those modifications were life-changers. But for others they were dangerous innovations.

Note: quote from 2 Corinthians 10:2 (NASB NIV NCB NCV with slight modifications)

 

 

Week 45  2 Corinthians 8-9

I sped through chapters 8 & 9. I didn’t figure I needed the reminder since I already knew the principle: It’s Important To Give (or maybe even stronger than that: You Have To Give!)
It was a quick read-through but not so fast that I didn’t absorb anything. Paul said a couple of charity-related things that slowed me down.
First was that one of the aims of giving was equality: it is not that there should be relief for others and hardship for you, but it is a question of equality (another version says it’s a matter of fairness). Equality & fairness are pretty elastic words. Stretchy enough to be pulled in different directions. I wonder what Paul is driving-at and decide that it might just be a reminder of the Golden Rule Principle.
Then there’s a second thing: God loves a cheerful giver. Personally I tend to approach charity in a necessitarian way – I’m supposed to do it…and so I give. Most of the time I’m not feeling sunny. It makes me wonder if there’s a Charity Emotion Scale:
1. Giving (and feeling cheerful & happy about it)
2. Giving (but in a more emotionally-neutral & detached way)
3. Giving (but only because I feel forced to).
I’m in the second category but likely should be aiming at the first. Being in the second is preferable to being in the third…but not as good as being in the first. So there’s room for development.

Note: 2 Corinthians 8:13 (CSB ESV) & 9:7 (CSB)

 

Week 45  2 Corinthians 2

Paul: for we are not like the many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity… I check a couple of other versions:
we aren’t like so many people who hustle the word of God to make a profit
we are not like a lot of folks who go about huckstering God’s message for a fee
we do not market the word of God for profit like so many
we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word.
(I’m not sure who was doing this. Simon Magus the Magician of Samaria comes to mind. But he wanted to pay the apostles so he could dispense the Holy Spirit – maybe to turn a profit but it doesn’t say that.)
Anyway Paul says that many people were Gospel Marketers. Merchandisers. Traders in the good-news. Wholesalers of the good-news.
He doesn’t say that what these Gospel Profiteers were teaching was incorrect (not saying for instance that Jesus didn’t rise-from-death – that would make them heretics). So I’d be inclined to give them the benefit-of-the-doubt that they were orthodox. But they were insincere. Paul said that a genuine gospeller had to be sincere.
In the NT church the gospel was being preached in two ways: a) sincerely (not motivated by material profit) and b) insincerely (with the aim of making-a-buck). And it looks like b) was a common option.

Note: quote from 2 Corinthians 2:17 (NASB CEB CJB CSB ESV). Simon Magus is in Acts 8.

Week 45  1 Corinthians 15

Everyone will be raised to life in the right order. Christ was first to be raised. When Christ comes again, those who belong to him will be raised to life.
Paul is talking about resurrection in this chapter – about being dead and then coming back to life – and he mostly focusses on Jesus Christ. Christ was in the resurrection vanguard – the Proto-Resurrectee. But then there’ll be a big group of resurrectees – people who belong to Christ.
Paul says that’s the right order. First Christ came back to life (~2000 years ago). Second Christ’s people will be resurrected (at an undisclosed future time). Then third the end will come.
So-far-so-good. But it’s really the next couple of phrases that catch my attention. Two other events will happen: at that time Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers, and he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father.
So: a) rulers authorities & powers will be abolished and b) Christ will hand over the kingdom to the Father.
I think about this triad of Rulers Authorities & Powers. What-all or who-all they are is a bit vague and undefined. But I’ve already seen in other places that this shadowy syndicate of mysterious entities is dangerous. Their interest in the world is malignant. Bad operators cruising around doing their bad.
It’s a relief to know that at the final wrap-up they’ll be destroyed. But in the meantime they’re still on-the-prowl.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 15:23-24 (NCV)

Week 44  1 Corinthians 15

For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. Paul brings together the two contributors to his work. First there was him working hard. Second there was the Lord working along as well. Credit me. Credit the Lord.
It’s a nice picture of collaborative action. Paul the front man doing things in the obvious & visible foreground. Then also the Lord doing things in the not-always-as-obvious background (where the Lord had the option of injecting some spectacular miracle into the mix if he wanted to). But according to Paul whatever the exact distribution of work was the general formula looked like this: me working + the Lord working = successful church life.
Trying to balance these kinds of concurring inputs is tricky. Paul – in spite of being the marquee guy – had to keep in mind that he was part of a team and couldn’t be too arrogant about his role. So even though he started out saying something  very self-congratulatory (‘I outworked all the other apostles’) he acknowledge that the Lord gave him a big boost.
Thinking back to the book of Acts it’s likely true that Paul actually did outperformed everyone else. But despite his track record Paul doubled back. Took a humbler line. Reigned-in what sounded a lot like smug self-congratulation. Gave the big credit where it was due.

Note: quote from 1 Corinthians 15:10 (NLT). End of October reading: 91% completed.

Week 44  1 Corinthians 6

I was interested in Paul’s question: do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? I checked a bunch of other versions for the word Unrighteous. The majority used the same word (the runner-up word was Wrongdoers. A couple used Unjust. Or phrases like Wicked-people. Evil-people. Bad-people. Sinful-people).
Anyway Paul then listed specific actions that described the practices of Unrighteous people:
Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
In the margin I saw a cross-reference to Romans:
Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light…Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy…And do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. (So Paul’s list in 1 Corinthians wasn’t comprehensive.)
And I know there are other lists. I page over to Galatians:
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like…Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
So when it comes to getting into the kingdom it’s pretty definite that abandoning unrighteous behavioural practices is a prerequisite.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Romans 13:12-13 Galatians 5:19-21 (NIV) (with some reformatting)